you know, when john boehner appears, they say are you willing to accept higher rates. no one says what are you going to do about entitlements or anything, there's no question of the president whether he will compromise and what that would look like. >> paul: steve, what do you think the republicans ought to do here? is there a way out for them or are they going to be pushed back into a corner where they have no choice, but to concede that they have to raise tax rates or else go over the cliff and get blamed for that? >> well, it's a tough situation for them. there's no question about it because as you know, the default position, if we don't do anything is for the taxes to go up on everybody on january 1st, and that's something i think both sides want to avoid. it's very interesting, the thing that happened this week to start the week, was who was the first person that barack obama met with in the white house since his election, the labor unions, the labor block, that tells a lot who is driving policy at least at the start of the second term? and the labor unions basica